Edmonton Oilers reveal that Draisaitl's injury is worse than expected
Things have gotten much worse than expected for the Edmonton Oilers and Leon Draisaitl.
After leaving Sunday’s game against the Nashville Predators with a lower-body injury, the Oilers have officially announced on Tuesday that Draisaitl is expected to miss the remainder of the regular season. There was no mention of whether or not his absence could continue into the playoffs.
This is a stark departure from Knoblauch’s seemingly positive tone around the injury following that victory against the Predators.
“Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl is expected to miss the remainder of the regular season after sustaining a lower-body injury in the first period of the team’s game versus Nashville on March 15,” The Oilers said in a statement.
Leon Draisaitl is out for the rest of the regular season with a lower-body injury, according to #Oilers
— Preston Hodgkinson (@NHLHodgkinson) March 17, 2026
The injury seemingly came after the German superstar took an awkward hit from Nashville forward Ozzy Wiesblatt. Draisaitl attempted to play through the injury with a few more shifts in the opening period, but ultimately left the game at the start of the second period.
It was not initially expected that this would be a long-term injury.
Here was the hit by Ozzy Wiesblatt that apparently knocked Leon Draisaitl out of the game.
At least 3-4 Oilers players have gone after Wiesblatt for what appears to be a legal hit. pic.twitter.com/vGxiybYSQx
— Alex Daugherty (@AlexDaugherty1) March 16, 2026
The Oilers will now have to make significant changes to their forward group, a preview of which we may have already seen at Monday’s practice.
Edmonton was already in a fierce race to secure a divisional playoff spot, and that will now become much harder without one of their best players to help. Draisaitl has been an engine for this team all season long, and not having him in this final stretch will be a massive hole for the Oilers.
This means that Draisaitl will miss at least the remaining 14 games on Edmonton’s regular-season schedule.
This will ramp up the pressure on Connor McDavid to take over the offensive reins for Edmonton. The hope is that some of the Oilers’ secondary scorers, like Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jack Roslovic, and even Matt Savoie, can step up to fill in the offensive void left by Draisaitl’s absence.
Though there was no mention of playoff games in the Oilers’ statement, you have to imagine that if this injury knocked out Draisaitl for the rest of the regular season, playoff games could also be a possibility.